Crossroads
by Superpower Lottery
Summary: All Annabeth wants is to get the wizard from the phone book to help her find Percy. All Murphy wants is to keep the mythological creeps out of her town. Teaming up sounds like a very horrible idea, but who knows, it just might work out - as long as they don't have to repeat it anytime soon.
1. The Guest

Murphy didn't want to say it. No, she didn't even want to think it, but saying it out loud was her limit; it was simply too close to actually admitting it. "Dresden doesn't live in Chicago anymore," she finally said through clenched teeth.

"I see," the blonde girl said ineffectually, pouting like she just stepped out of a sitcom. "I suppose that's what I get for asking a dryad for information. Oak trees don't have the tiniest bit of time perception."

"Of course they don't." The ex-policewoman made a mental note to remember this fact, out of pure habit more than anything. She's never heard much about dryads, which either meant that Dresden never encountered one or didn't consider them important enough to mention. Either way, in her current line of work, she never knew when the seemingly moot bit of information could come in handy.

"Where is he, then?" the girl asked, and for a single moment, Murphy wanted to punch her for bringing it up.

She caught herself immediately. Hitting innocent teenage girls for something that wasn't even their fault wasn't her style. It was, in fact, the complete opposite of her style. The thing that threw her off wasn't the question itself, or at least not just that. It was the way she almost instinctively realized that this girl was far from innocent. She tried and almost succeeded at acting like a normal, though slightly anxious Californian; Murphy was pretty sure she wouldn't have seen through her if she hadn't been searching for oddities in the first place. Still, now that she thought about it, she was convinced that the blonde carefully planned her too-casual act to mask _something_.

The girl – Annabeth, as she identified herself – never interrupted the short pause, but her gray eyes shifted toward Murphy's hand before the woman even made the conscious decision to reach for her weapon. Ah, perhaps her eyes were what made her look off; they were too deep and knowing for a seventeen-year-old. Almost uncanny.

She let her hand slip back a second later, but never fully relaxed. Neither did the definitely-not-human person in front of her. "Why do you want to know?"

"I told you already," Annabeth said, slightly frustrated. "I'm looking for someone and I think he could help. Come on, you said yourself that if I can enter, then it means I'm human. I'm not gonna slit your throat or anything."

"It means that you're _probably_ human," Murphy corrected. "Either tell the truth or go away, the innocent-girl-act doesn't do you any justice."

The young blonde hesitated for a moment, probably thinking it through, then changed her composure in the chair she's been offered. The fake normality slid off like cheap paint under a stream of water. "You're good," she said, allowing just a little bit of wholesome arrogance into her voice. "But I didn't lie to you, actually."

"No, you just didn't tell me the whole truth."

She nodded. "Of course not; knowledge is power, and I'd have to be out of my mind to give you any more of it when you already have two people waiting to ambush me."

Murphy was suddenly glad that all these years as a cop taught her how to keep a poker face on, because right now, she really needed one. "Fair enough," she said. The two werewolves strategically hiding around her living room didn't move, but she knew they would jump up if the girl were to so much as twitch without warning. "Which is it, then?"

It was ever the same routine: try to look in control even though you aren't, don't show any sign on weakness and hope that the enemy wouldn't have any tricks up her sleeve. In this case, though, it was more about hoping that she wouldn't turn out to be an enemy after all. Will did say that she seemed friendly enough this morning, when he caught her snooping around their base.

"I have no reason to tell you anything, ma'am," the girl finally said. "I simply wanted to meet Harry Dresden."

Still, Murphy didn't want to answer the damned question. "I'm sorry, but that's just not possible."

Understanding lingered in Annabeth's eyes – not pity or fake compassion, just understanding. "I thought that might be it," she said. "If you don't mind, then I'll be going now."

"Of course," Murphy agreed and stood up, just in case. The girl made her way toward the door, but stopped with her hand on the handle.

"Just one more thing. Frankly, I don't think we have any reason to end up as enemies, so I'll give you some free advice."

Murphy raised a brow. "And what would it be?"

"This whole routine, checking whether a person can enter your home and everything else you've tried, wouldn't work against anything I've ever fought. Then again, neither would your weapons. Wrong material."

Then she left.

Now, that was helpful.


	2. Worst Case Scenario

Annabeth met Murphy for the second time two days later, and she wasn't the tiniest least happy about it. As a matter of fact, she barely managed to conceal her annoyance at getting mixed up in her business.

On a better day, the daughter of Athena would've found the woman intriguing; she was a mere mortal, not even a clear-sighted one, but she knew a whole lot about everything supernatural that Annabeth only suspected and theorized about. She would've wanted to know how it all worked and how the beings she only found out about now could've stayed hidden from humans – and even worse, from demigods like herself – without being protected by the mist. Not to mention what wizards were and whether they could be considered human, what they could do, maybe also how Murphy got to know a wizard in the first place. Not to mention his name was Harry, of all things, and now that she thought about it, she could practically hear Percy making some dumb remark.

On a better day, the much older, yet equally broken woman would've perhaps answered those questions about Harry Dresden, instead of trying to conceal her grief.

But those were just fantasies, and reality insisted to stubbornly cling on. Annabeth's boyfriend was still missing, and neither she nor Nico or any other of Percy's friends were coming any closer to finding him.

The most noteworthy fact was, as Annabeth realized while dodging an attack from something green and insect-like, that this day managed to suck even more than the previous ones.

"What are you-" the tiny blonde woman hiding behind a stack of shipping containers silently asked. She was standing completely still, her posture proving beyond any doubt that she's been doing this before Annabeth was even born. The girl vaguely recognized the gun she was holding from the sketches that their whole cabin was covered in a few years back – something about the Hephaestus cabin and the adjustments the barrel needed to fire celestial bronze rounds. As if that mattered right now, when the damned thing was pointed right at her head.

It was one of those times she wished Percy was here, even more than so than every single moment since he disappeared. Sure, he was about as good at strategic thinking as Apollo was at shutting up, but it was nice to have someone on your team who's invulnerable and fast enough cut a bullet mid-air. Her own chances to dodge successfully from this range were fifty-fifty at best, which was nowhere near worth the risk. She shook her head franticly and pointed the dagger she held in her right hand at the monsters that swarmed all over the place, hoping it would get the message through. So much for strategy.

Murphy nodded and pointed the weapon at the monsters instead. The girl took it as a sign that she was allowed to come closer. "Are you going to kill them?" she asked in a whisper.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "What kind of a question is that?"

"They are obviously controlled by that… spell-caster, I suppose. Those things-"

"Worms is a sorcerer," Murphy corrected a few moments too late.

Annabeth ignored the comment. "-those things only attacked me when I tried to attack them first, so I'd say they respond to violence. They aren't acting on their own accord. Getting rid of the so-called sorcerer sounds a lot more productive, depending on what would happen to the creatures then."

Murphy frowned. "I don't know what they are. They can either dissolve into thin air, continue to do their thing here, go back to where they came from…"

"Or be freed of the sorcerer's spell and start eating people?" Annabeth suggested.

"Seems like you've done this before."

"Not in this particular scenario, but I tend to assume the worst. Either way, you'd better-"

"Leave?" Murphy continued the nearly-silent conversation that seemed to consist mainly of interruptions. "I've had this conversation before, and if anyone is leaving, it's you. This isn't your responsibility, it's mine."

That one did wonders to Annabeth's opinion on her. The mortal woman wasn't particularly nice to talk to, but she was so very interesting. The girl still wanted nothing more than to find Percy, but after all, she had no leads and already checked out everyone on the Greek side of things who was ready to talk. She had nothing to lose here. Maybe, just maybe, she could find out something important if she stayed in Chicago for a few more days.

"No such thing," the girl hissed in her most stubborn tone. "If you don't agree to let me help, I'm just gonna do it my own way. Who knows, I might even interrupt your plan by accident and get everyone killed."

Murphy suppressed a curse and asked, "You have a way with words. How does it even concern you?"

She smirked. "I'll give you my story if you give me yours."


	3. One Last Question

"I'm a demigod."

Murphy nearly choked on her lemonade when she heard the girl's announcement. She didn't know exactly what she expected; a good chunk of the supernatural beings she knew of were capable of masquerading as humans, and Annabeth could've theoretically been any of them. But a demigod… that was the sort of thing that would've made Harry panic, which, in her book, meant global-scale trouble.

"A demigod," the ex-policewoman echoed. "As in, a divine creature. The next-best thing to an actual deity in terms of power. That kind of demigod?"

"That's a misuse of the term," Annabeth answered, looking mildly amused, and Murphy suddenly regretted not taking a proper beer. She would have, but when she asked the girl whether she drank, the answer she got was 'Of course not, I'm seventeen'. The young blonde silently sat her cup on the table in Mac's place and continued without bothering to conceal the fact that she took great pleasure at getting to explain something that Murphy didn't know. Even Dresden wasn't such a douche about it. "Demigods are just children of a mortal and a Greek god. Depending on the godly parent, we can be anything from a near-human with an inborn affinity to the parent's domain to a walking, talking natural disaster."

"If I ask which one of those you are, will you give me a cryptic and incredibly unhelpful answer?"

"I'd like to, but I did promise to tell you the truth. I'm a daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and strategy."

She eyed the curly-haired blond skeptically. "Which basically makes you… really wise?"

"Not wise enough to find my boyfriend, apparently." Either the girl was the best actress Murphy has ever met, or she was very much like a human after all, because when she said that, she looked like a mere teenager trying to conceal a fit of longing, frustration and self-loathing all at the same time.

The wave of pity was probably what made Murphy able to finally mention Harry. "You mean the one you wanted Dresden to find for you? Was he kidnapped?"

"I don't know. He just disappeared a few weeks ago and I've been searching for him ever since."

"Did you call the police? Sorry, I already know the answer to that one. Anyway, how do you know he didn't just leave on his own?"

For a second there, it looked like the girl was about to slam her cup right at Murphy's face. Her blonde curls bounced on her shoulders as she raised her chin proudly and answered, "Because I know Percy, and him ditching the people who rely on him is about as likely as the sky falling d-" she shuddered for a moment, "Wait, bad comparison, it actually almost did."

"The sky fell down?" Murphy asked. "How exactly does that work?"

"That's the thing, it didn't. You'd have noticed it… for about a second, at least, before it crushed everything. You know, Greek mythology, the whole business with Atlas being forced to to separate Gaea from Ouranos," she explained casually, as if she was talking about the weather. "Anyway, I know that Percy wouldn't have left. It's not just about me either, there's also his mother. Not to mention all the other demigods – he led us in a war last summer."

Murphy could buy the idea that there were a bunch of half-divine people who looked like normal humans running around without getting noticed, but concealing a whole war seemed far-fetched. "A war against who?" she asked. "And why didn't anyone notice?"

She smiled. "So, are you still going to tell me what your deal is? It was a two-way agreement, after all."

"I don't know," Murphy shrugged. "What _is_ my deal?"

The girl glared at her impatiently. "You're a mortal. From what I understood, you're the leader of some kind of an improvised organization that gets its funds from criminals – and its goal is, of all things, to protect a city from monsters. Anyone would get curious."

Murphy groaned and stood up. This was going to be a very long conversation, so she might as well get that beer now.


	4. Siege

Annabeth did her best not to sound annoyed as she gave them the clip notes version to why-the-hell-she-was-here for the fourth time. In these people's line of work, paranoia wasn't just a probable result, but a requirement. This fact didn't actually prevent her from finding them irritating, but she tried. Surely, anyone reasonable would give her a few points for that.

"All of you, did you get the plan?" the ex-policewoman (Who lost her job because she was busy saving lives, as the girl just found out. So very typical.) asked as she entered the room with a gun in one hand and bullets in the other. One of her allies, a mortal boy who couldn't have been much older than Annabeth, got up from his chair.

"We attack full force to clear the way, you and the wise chick go get the sorcerer. I still don't get why she goes in with us."

"Because she can help and won't leave me alone unless I let her," Murphy put it nicely. The real reason was exactly that, plus the fact that the leader would rather put Annabeth, and herself, in the line of fire than one of her people. That made her a good boss, in a way.

She checked for the last time that she had enough Nectar and Ambrosia with her – something she hadn't mentioned, and wasn't going to – while the others prepared their weapons. Two of them, one of whom was a werewolf and the other apparently just very well trained, started fighting over whether to take a truck or two cars.

"Definitely the cars," said Murphy. "It's less conspicuous. Daniel, Billy, if you really have to rip out each others' throats, then please do it when we're done."

"Yes ma'am," the boy rolled his eyes. Murphy was a good leader, indeed. Annabeth got into one of the cars, mentally preparing herself for the mission. It's been a long time since she last worked in a real team - not since the war, really.

One and a half hours later, she could consider her previous theory - and half of the reason why she was still here - confirmed. The sorcerer didn't put up much of a fight, not because he wasn't capable of it, but because the moment they managed to breach his defenses, a portal opened and sucked him somewhere else. The girl spent the next hour or so taking his base apart to find out exactly what he had to do with the Greeks, then made a quick phone call to avoid using Iris Messages around the policewoman. Surprisingly enough, Nico turned out to be at camp for once in his life and said he'd call back soon.

"Well?" Murphy asked, leaning on the door behind her. "Who did you call?"

"My boyfriend's, uh, cousin. I asked him to check whether the sorcerer was dead."

"How's he going to do that?"

"By going to the underworld," she explained. Everything was always so complicated when it came to Nico. "He kind of lives there."

"You have some interesting friends," Murphy muttered. "We should probably go away. Our guy made a good job at soundproofing the place, but who knows who he managed to upset over the time. The police could still come to check what he was up to, because if nothing else, then I bet he wasn't the tax-paying type. At least he didn't leave a corpse, though - That's usually the problem with fighting sorcerers. They're still human."

"I'm not sure he was one, though," Annabeth said thoughtfully. "At least, he hasn't been fighting with mortal power. It was lent to him in a Faustian deal of sorts, or maybe just for someone's amusement." Something she knew because her knife wasn't supposed to hurt a human being. Just one of the details she decided to leave out as insurance – even if it meant getting a normal weapon on the side so her story would hold without getting anyone killed. She liked to be thorough.

"Do you know who it was?"

"A spirit, according to this," she said and handed Murphy a handful of ancient Greek texts. "Don't look so surprised, of course I can read it. They're summoning rituals, apparently, but the idiot had no idea who he was summoning. I think it was one of the phonoi, random killings do match their style. Anyway, the other spirits of combat are still sulking because the war is over and they're stuck in the middle east again."

"Whatever you say. Will the spirit stick around here?"

Annabeth sighed. She hadn't lost too much thought over that. "No idea. It'll probably go on to do its thing somewhere else, and I have no plans to search for it. You can't kill a spirit anyway, so why bother?"

"You haven't found anything about your boyfriend, have you?"

"No," she said. "I think I'll go back to asking everyone until they're annoyed enough to give me a genuine answer. Not that it helps if they don't know anything..." Indeed, she was starting to think that someone with real power kidnapped Percy. Someone on par with the Olympians. But that information, even more so than the details on ambrosia and celestial bronze, was too important to just give away to a strange. Even one you exchanged life stories with. She shook her head in denial. "Anyway, this was worth a try. I'll call if I find out what happened to the sorcerer."

"Thank your friends for me. And give me those ritual instructions, I'll destroy them just in case."

Annabeth suppressed a frown. She wanted to study the texts further, but the woman obviously didn't trust her enough to leave them with her. With some help from Chiron, she could probably find copies if she ever got the time. "You do that. And we really should go away, or we'll get attacked soon. I wasn't supposed to use a cell phone." Murphy gave her a quizzical look, so she explained. "For the monsters, it's like we're transmitting our voice all around."

"Monsters can pick up phone frequencies? That's a new one."

"You're the first one who wondered about that," she half-smiled, deciding that maybe the whole taking-the-text-just-in-case thing was to be forgiven. "I'm actually not sure how it works, and the monsters are mostly too busy trying to bite my head off to explain the exact details of their sensory organs. Anyway, we're not allowed to have a phone, I just take a calculated risk. Here, call us if you ever get attacked by anything sufficiently Greek," she said and handed Murphy the business card of Camp Half-Blood. It used to be mostly satyrs who carried those around, but lately, so many demigods have been turning up that anyone remotely capable of recruiting had to join in. Anyhow, she didn't remember anyone ever using those for any other purpose (aside from the camp's organic strawberry business).

"Thanks," Murphy smiled and tucked the card into her jeans pocket. "Nothing personal, but considering the circumstances, I honestly hope we'll never meet again."

Annabeth nodded and left the place. She had things to do.


End file.
